Ústí nad Labem

Milan Hejduk learned the game in Ústí nad Labem before an Olympic gold in 1998 and a Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2001, and Michal Neuvirth followed a similar path out of the same rink and into the NHL. Jan Čaloun, another product of the club, won the same Olympic title and a world championship the year after.

Ice hockey in the city goes back to Sokol Ústí nad Labem in 1945, but the current club dates from 1963, set up as TJ Slovan NV Ústí nad Labem after the previous city side, TJ Chemička, collapsed for lack of money. The same problem returned in 1997: the club sold its place in the 1. Liga to KLH Chomutov and dropped to the third tier. It won that division back in 1999, returned to the 1. Liga in 2000, and took the title there four times over the following decade, including 2006–07, which brought promotion to the Extraliga. The stay lasted one season — 2007–08, with Rastislav Špirko and Pavel Janků in the lineup — before relegation sent the club back down.

Between 2007 and 2013 the club played under the name HC Slovan Ústečtí Lvi, the Lions. They play at the Zimní stadion Ústí nad Labem, known locally as the Zlatopramen Arena, holding 4,750 seated and up to 6,500 in total.

No meeting on the calendar matters more than the one against HC Děčín.